Just hours before he was set to address the state's sheriffs at their winter conference in Sandestin Monday, Governor Rick Scott weighed in on the ongoing gun control debate.

"I believe I'm a strong supporter of the second amendment and I'm going to continue to support the second amendment. We want to make sure we continue to focus on our crime rate, 41 year low in our crime rate," said Governor Scott.

Governor Scott is also battling backlash over his announcement last week wanting to give Florida's 168,000 full-time teachers a $2,500 pay raise. It would cost the state nearly a half billion dollars. The raise itself teachers agree with, but it's the motivation behind it in question. Many critics said they believe it's a political ploy to get support for his reelection. Scott said Monday he's doing what he promised when he first took office four years ago.

"I ran on a campaign to get our state back to work and to make sure we improved the education system. Our state's getting back to work. It's working, biggest drop in unemployment other than one state in the entire United States, so now that we have more money in our budget, we can put more money to education," Scott said.

And while teachers could be making more in 2014, some lawmakers are pushing for similar treatment for the state's thousands of government employees. The 7% proposal was reportedly in the governor's budget last year, but the legislature cut it out. It's unclear how much exactly it would cost the state. Scott wouldn't say if he'd try again this year.

"You'll see when I come out with my budget. I hope you'll come over to get to see it," said Scott.

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